There are many people who have fallen prey to scammers and lost their life savings. Unfortunately, thieves are becoming more and more creative and inventing all kinds of methods to trick people, which are more and more ingenious and believable. That’s what a swindler did, who damaged a 73-year-old man from Abrud, Alba county.
The method that leaves the elderly penniless
A new method of cheating is causing victims in Romania. The method called “pot” left an old man penniless. He realized it and notified the police immediately.
More precisely, the 73-year-old man from Alba county was the victim of a person from Mureș, who cheated him by selling him pots at an overpriced price.
The crockery and cutlery seller looks for elderly people to trick by giving them a good initial price, then makes them pay more, sometimes even triple the original price.
The policemen from the Alba County Police Inspectorate, on May 31, 2023, the criminal investigation policemen from Abrud identified a 40-year-old man, from Crăciunești, Mureș County, as a person suspected of having committed acts of fraud whose the victim was a 73-year-old man from Abrud.
On May 19, the swindler offered the old man a set of cutlery, a set of knives and a set of pots, all for the sum of 600 lei.
The old man agreed, but when he was about to withdraw the money, the scammer told him that the price was, in fact, 3,000 euros, telling the old man to withdraw money from the ATM.
He paid 2,400 lei, but then he realized that he was deceived and called the police.
The police investigated and all the damage was recovered and returned to the old man.
What should the elderly be aware of?
On television and on the Internet, and even in public transport, the elderly are warned not to fall prey to all kinds of scams.
There are many methods of cheating, and some of them are: the accident method, the “money expertise” method, the “courier” method, the grand prize method, debts to the government, PET buyers, agents who do “charitable deeds” , voting by mail or many other methods by which the elderly can lose their life savings.
The authorities advise the elderly to be cautious about the information they are given over the phone or through text messages.
You don’t have to deposit money into the accounts of strangers, pay for things online if you get a message and you haven’t ordered anything, you don’t have to receive strangers in your home or accept exchanges of goods or give money in advance to pick up so-called awards.
Seniors are advised to call the police or talk to family about any situation they encounter with money or phone calls/texts received from unknown individuals or entities.
